Final in St. Louis: Blues 6, Kings 4
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The Kings rallied once but couldn’t do it twice, losing to the St. Louis Blues, 6-4, Thursday on Alexander Steen’s shot from the left circle that beat Jonathan Quick to the stick side at 17:07 of the third period.
Jay McClement had carried the puck into the zone and had it knocked off his stick. But Steen recovered and put the Blues ahead to stay.
They added an insurance goal by David Backes with 58.4 seconds to play and Quick gone in favor of an extra skater.
The Kings are 1-1 on a trip that continues Saturday at Nashville.
In addition to the defeat, the Kings lost defenseman Willie Mitchell early in the second period after he suffered what was called a lower-body injury. That put extra strain on the remaining defensemen, a repeat of what had happened in the Kings’ previous game, on Monday, when Rob Scuderi suffered a cut lip and Matt Greene was left wobbly after a hard hit.
Greene, incidentally, did not play Thursday after he awakened and felt ill.
The Kings got goals by Ryan Smyth (a goal originally awarded to Jack Johnson), Anze Kopitar — his sixth in six games — as well as Wayne Simmonds and Dustin Brown. Those last two goals were scored a minute and 27 seconds apart in the second period and brought the Kings even at 4-4.
More later at www.latimes.com/sports
Helene Elliott in St. Louis